There's an action packed programme of School of Adventure courses ready to introduce people to new sports or coach those who just want to brush up on their skills from wild swimming, fell-running and walking to caving, climbing, biking and bushcraft activities

In the evening there's great food, great music and talks, films and campfires.

A not-for-profit event brought to you by Alpkit, Alpkit Foundation and Thornbridge Outdoors

Every month Alpkit donates 1% of its sales, a minimum of 10% of its annual profit, plus the proceeds from events such as the Big Shakeout to the Alpkit Foundation. The Alpkit Foundation is an independent charity registered with the Charities Commision (Reg No 1162585). Every pound donated to the Foundation will directly support outdoor activity.

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Big Shakeout Lowepro photo comp results

By Kenny Stocker | 19, Oct, 2011

In pictures

The Big Shakeout started out life as our event: we planned what was going to happen, who was going to be where, we even made timetables, but if there is one thing this competition has shown, it is that you guys really made it your own. There is so much that we missed, so many stories we were not part of, and that makes us bounce off the roof with excitement.

We challenged you with this competition to capture an image that would sum up the Big Shakeout weekend, a single super absorbent sponge of an image that would be saturated in everything that happened and give it all up when squeezed. Many thanks to Lowepro UK for putting up the prizes and supporting this comp. All entries can be found on Flickr tagged bigshakeout

1st prize - Wins Lowepro Photo Sport 200 AW
This picture immediately made the judges smile, and if the Big Shakeout is about anything at all it is about having a good time. A lot of people remembered the Alpkit letters, they were the first thing you saw on the chilly Friday evening, a reassuring beacon lighting a misty hillside after a long drive. We liked the simplicity of the image, the bright colours, the beautiful blue sky and soft autumnal sun which blessed us over the entire weekend; we are not going to forget that ever. The music and activities are represented in force by the t-shirt, and boy does that kid look proud to be wearing it. In short this one image captured more aspects of the weekend than any of the others. The only slight niggle we had was the shadow in the bottom right hand corner, but this could be easily cropped out. Good job.

2nd prize - Wins Lowepro Slingshot 202 AW
One thing we felt a lot of images lacked was a sense of time and place, but this image captures those with dramatic effect. The combination of the letters and the teepee mean this can only have been happening on the Big Shakeout weekend at the Big Shakeout. Technically the image is well executed, the flash exposes the juggler in an island of concentration as the chaos of the Big Shakeout swirls all around him. The vibrant colours are full and intense, recalling painted faces, burning fires and hot steps on the dance floor.

3rd prize - Wins Lowepro Apex 140 AW
We loved this image as it really captures the time of year very well, those who were at the event will appreciate the contrast between the cold, damp and misty morning and the warm bright sunshine in the afternoon.. quintessentially autumn. The framing is exquisite, the mysterious figures are planted like small trees, stationary but clearly working together in a team. It is clear a good deal of thought went into the image, it is sharp, and the short depth of field blurs the background into an undiscovered horizon of adventure.

Honourable mentions
Thornbridge Outdoors provided many great activities over the weekend for families and children and this picture captures that well. We liked how it was non-elitist and we were intrigued to know what had caught the first childs attention in the bush. It is clear the photographer has a good eye, and followed our advice to have their camera close at hand. The chance ordering of the children in height is nice, the bright colours are fun and vibrant, but we just felt the overall image was a little too busy.

If you put a bunch of climbers, boaters and riders all together in a room, close to a bar, at some point they are going to start up a challenge. The Alpkit stones came out late Saturday night. We love what is going on inside this picture, the intensity of the two groups in conversation, the focussed concentration on the jumpers face which is mirrored by the girl with red hair. The reason we didn’t rate this image higher was because it will only mean something to a relatively small number of people and does not capture the event as a whole.

The School of Adventure courses which ran offsite during Saturday and Sunday were a major part of people’s weekend. This lovely atmospheric image is a very good representation of Peak District bouldering in the autumn. Great image, it made us want to be there with a boulder mat on our backs.

The Alpkit letters were well photographed over the weekend and one of our favourites was this electrifying shot. We thought it was a lot of fun, but fun as it is, we did not think it said enough about the event to rank higher.